Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

1.26.2009

Whitetail... the White Lie

Whitetail... East Coast ski resorts and their WHITELIE... it is not just WHITETAIL

a few weeks back my old friend Mike Mapp aka Micro talked me into a quick afternoon assault on Ski Libertywith a measure of my weekend and its window of opportunity I agreed that this quick out and back was in fact an excellent idea

neither of us were let downthe edges on our boards were as rusty as our skillswhich was fine... the terrain of the east is pretty tameespecially when all skiable surfaces are man madewe arrived stoked and we left smiling

Ski Liberty got high marks from us on that daythe man made was at its East Coast Best!there were no real lift lines to speak ofticket purchase was just a moment's waitand the cattle call queue to the super quads was a similar duration

it was a quick afternoon assaultan attack that seemed like a good model for future winter weekends to comeso when I got the call from Micro about boarding I could not resist the temptationthe initial thought was to hit Liberty again... yet I swayed Micro into testing out Whitetailhaving poled a number of people on Liberty versus Whitetail I got a strong opinion leaning to Whitetailso I felt compelled to make a comparisonto which Micro agreed

the noon time departure was a few minutes late just as the noon time departure had been late on the approach to LibertyI drove up with Cargo Mike who had called about taking the Single Speeds to Rosaryville but was swayed towards snowboarding insteadMicro arrived a few minutes before us... we rolled in and parked right next to his truck finding him without even starting to look for himhe was suited up and ready to ride...

as Cargo Mike rented his gear Micro and I took a ride to the topthe lift lines were longer than they had been at Liberty just a few days priorthe mountain is slightly larger so the congestion seemed similareach mountains had no shortage of human hazards to avoidpeople were falling in front of uspeople were screaming down the hill unable to slow down or turnand the hill was littered with bodies of skiiers who looked awkward like box turltes stuck on their backs

as we worked our way down the mountain we were introduced to the Whitetail that I rememberedconcrete hard chunks of corn snow and biggersome nice man made for a few turns only to send the rider/skier whatever onto a sheet of icethese textureless sheets of ice were tucked all over the mountainone hill that takes the riders to an alternate chair was one massive 45 degree angle of ice

the conditions were toughnot the worst conditions I have experiencedas I have seen colder days with more icebut it was pretty classic east coastand not east coast at its best

we tried to stay positivewe traveled the mountain testing various runsrepeating some lineseach of us taking our preferred routes

I tried to stay on the sides of the trail rather than the centerthe side of the trail where the sun still hit seemed like the closest resemblance of snowI also pointed my board towards that poor man's poweredat this point in the day there was no corduroy but corduroy man made is not the velvety pleasure that corduroy in the west is after a several inch dusting is pressed down by the groomer

we tried to stay positiveit was tough to stay positiveas the day got later the visibility got worseas the bodies grew tired the ice became more and more unpleasantmy body was feeling worked by trying to work as much fun out of the mountain as I could

we zipped through the park a number of timesI avoided any and all featuresas air is even less my thing on this concrete like substance

we departed no more early than I would have wanted to leave had there been better snowbut our departure was tainted a bit by our experience that daycall me a snow snob... but I have a hard time enjoying these sorts of conditions

I offered hesitation in comparing Liberty on a different day to this day at Whitetailmy guess was that the warm day prior followed by the cold evening and the cold day is what gave us the unforgiving sheets of ice

flurries now... but I think that they need more than flurries

my next approach to either Liberty or Whitetail will be after some natural snow... preferably on a weekday... and more than likely with my family

time to check the snow report for West Virginiamaybe a family trip to Canaan Valley will give us a better slope experience

Seven Springs is also an option... but I have never had anything but classic east coast there

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